Nasiriyya

The Nasiriyah (also Nasiriya, French Zaouïa Naciria ) is an Islamic Sufi order ( tariqa ) of Muhammad ibn Nasir ( 1603-1674 ) Tamgroute was founded on the southern end of Wadi Draa in Morocco in the village and there for its lifetime the most influential Orders rose.

Founder

In the village Tamgroute ( Tamgrut ), it was Abu Hafs ' Umar ibn Ahmad al - Ansari, who from the Zawiya ( religious center, where generally: Sufi orders ) since 1575 came from Sayyid al - Nas, named Ansari - Zawiya. Muhammad ibn Nasir came from an unknown family and was a scholar of Islam in 1646 Shaykh ( Shaykh ) of the Ansari - Zawiya. He is still one of the most famous missionaries of the Marabout, a community of faith fighters who spread Sufi Islam among the Berbers one in the remote southern Moroccan and Algerian mountain regions. Sidi Muhammad saw himself in the tradition of 13th- century Schadhiliyya Order, from its namesake Abu- l -Hassan ash- Shadhili he his Silsila ( spiritual lineage chain) herleitete. Unlike other religious leaders, he never claimed direct descent from the Prophet, but explained that all Awliya stood close (plural of wali, holy men ) to the Prophet Mohammed alike. This would explain the large worship by the followers of Nasiriyah. Many believers were attracted by the simplicity of teaching and to sustaining Baraka (religious power ).

The religious center in Tamgroute is still locally influential, there regularly evening dhikr recitations are organized as in other Zawiyas in the surrounding villages. In the library, precious manuscripts are stored, Sidi Muhammad himself left many poems and religious treatises.

Spread

The Nasiriyah Medal spread, and with it the Sufism among the Berbers to the north of the High Atlas Mountains and into the black African south. The headquarters of the Order was located strategically on the trade route from Tindouf in the south, via Tafilet to the Algerian Mediterranean coast ( for trade with Europe), gained control of arable land and water resources, and thus became in the 17th century to a political and economic power. Merchants and businessmen were offered within the Zawiya a marketplace and is a protected property. For the population offered the Order of religious leadership, military defense and exchange of goods. The Order was enriched by gifts from patrons. From the assumed gold and silver bought the son and successor of the founder, Ahmed ibn Nasir ( Ahmed al - Khalifa, 1647-1717 ), more lands and let new schools, hostels and warehouse building.

The increasing politicization of Sufi orders and influence on the worldly affairs began even before the Nasiriyah movement and can be attributed to the teachings of the Sufi leader Muhammad al- Jazuli († 1465 ) from the Berber tribe of the Jazula in southern Morocco traced. The Nasiriyah took part also the organizational structure from there.

Together with the marabout religious other Berber tribes succeeded under the leadership of Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad, to conquer the last of the Shaykh Dila - Zawiya, mid-17th century in the fight against the dynasty of the Saadian the center of Morocco to the Atlantic. The combined Berber could hit in 1646 in a battle that gradually against the Saadian passing through Alawites. After the victory of the Alawites against Abu Bakr 1668, the Berber rule was finally broken in Morocco. The political power of the Order was broken, economically the Nasiriyah remained influential. Some later religious leaders had as a people holy significance and remained in my memory. In times of civil war were the Zawiyas places of refuge, and the Marabout represented the sole authority and power structure.

The sixth of Nasiriyah Shaykh Yusuf ibn Nasir († 1783) was in 1767 attended the opening of the port of Essaouira for the foreign trade and led to his name the building of the largest mosque in the city. Towards the end of the 18th century, the good relations with European traders were partially lost to the Berber Tashelhiyt of Tazerwalt ( southern Morocco ). After the death of Yusuf the Alawites -Sultan Moulay Muhammad (1710-1790) gained more influence over the Nasiriyah. The ratio of Nasiriyah guide to the Alawites was split between rejection and collaboration. Beginning of the 19th century arose the Nasiriyah with the politically influential becoming Tijaniyya - Order a new opponent. Although the Nasiriyah retained their dominant position over the harbor Essaouira and the trade route through the Wadi Draa, yet it came in the 1820s to an open confrontation with the Tijaniyya. After the French invasion of Algeria in 1830 provided for the Moroccan sultans the Nasiriyah - religious as a mediator in the cross-cultural trading on. The relations with the colonial power were closely by French sources and were rewarded with gifts.

Furthermore Sīdī ʿ Ali ibn Yussef, the seventh Shaykh who lived in Tamgroute is worshiped. In the 1980s, over 10,000 pilgrims came to his anniversary ( mausim ). For the eleventh Shaykh Ahmed ibn Abu Bakr, who led the Order in Tamgroute 1907-1919, an annual pilgrimage is hosted.